Entwined by Elizabeth Marshall Page B

is this woman now?” Rose asked.
    “She’s gone, Rose, back to her people.”
    “What happened to the kid?” Rose asked.
    “She left you here, Rose,” Harry whispered.
    ******

CHAPTER 9
     
    The revelation silenced the room. None of us moved, not even to blink, every eye was trained on Harry in a fixed stare. I couldn’t in my wildest dreams, have predicted the words he had just spoken. Questions whirled through my head, causing an ever thickening fog of confusion.
    “Where is Rose’s mother now?” Simon asked, with an edge of accusation to his voice.
    “I told you,” Harry replied quietly. “She’s gone.”
    “But you didn’t say where she’d gone,” Simon challenged his friend.
    “No, I didn’t. And nor will I, because I don’t know.”
    Simon stared at the man with the dark threatening look I understood to mean trouble. “Why didn’t you go with her?”
    “Because I couldn’t,” the pub owner replied simply.
    “Don’t lie to me, Harry. I make an unpleasant enemy,” Simon warned.
    “Everything I have told you is the truth. Jessie and her mother had to go back. It was too dangerous for them to stay here any longer. I… I stayed with Rose to finish the job they came to do.”
    “And what job was that?” Simon growled.
    “To wait for you,” Harry snapped. “My daughter and I have gone to hell and back because someone had to stay here and wait for you three.”
    Simon raised his brows in question. “Explain yourself, man. What do you mean you stayed here to wait for us?”
    “That’s what Jessie and Giorsal were doing here. They came to wait for you three. Only they didn’t know exactly when you would come, so they waited nearly twenty years for you. In the end they could wait no longer.”
    “So my Mum and Gran aren’t dead?” Rose whispered.
    “No, Rose, both your Mother and Gran are safe - for now - but time is running out.”
    “What do you mean ‘time is running out’?” Simon asked.
    “Just what I said. There is much to be done and time is short,” replied Harry.
    “That’s what Eilidh said when she came into the shop,” I interrupted, suddenly recalling the girl’s words. “I was half asleep, so I supposed I must have forgotten it.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, I’m sure, Simon. She said almost exactly what Harry has just said.”
    “Why didn’t my Mum tell me?” Rose asked.
    “She couldn’t, Rose. The less you knew, the safer you would be.”
    “Is Rose immortal?” Simon asked.
    “We don’t know.”
    “What do you mean you don’t know? She either is or she isn’t,” Simon barked.
    “None of you are, not here. Jessie and her people have protected and hidden the Stag for years, but they can’t hide it forever. The Dark Circle must be stopped, and soon.”
    “I’m really sorry to interrupt,” said Kate timidly. “But none of this has anything to do with Grace and as far as we know she is still out there in the snow.”
    “I’m coming to Grace. Don’t fret, girl, she is safe for now,” said Harry gently.
    Simon reached for a bottle of whisky on the bar and topped up all three glasses up.
    “Tell me, Harry… How can I be sure you aren’t part of this Dark Circle?” Simon asked, passing the glass of whisky to the innkeeper.
    “Because Jessie left me this,” he said, opening the fist he had been clutching.
    “It’s a locket of heather and a crystal. Together they are powerful enough to protect you all from most things.” He paused, staring down at the tiny oval crystal and silver locket in his hand. “Go on, take it,” he said, holding out his hand to Simon. “If I meant you any harm I’d hardly be giving you the tools with which to protect yourself, now would I?”
    “Do you know what these things are for?” I asked Harry.
    “Yes, and we are going to need more than we have.”
    “Where are we supposed to find more? It’s hardly as if we can just pop out and get one from a supermarket,” I said in frustration.
    “I don’t